MSc Communications and Signal Processing with Extended Research

Fees for entry in 2027 have not yet been set. For reference, the fees for the academic year beginning September 2026 were as follows:

• MSc (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £14,700 year 1, £7,350 year 2
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £38,400 year 1, £19,200 year 2

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

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International student CAS deposit

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• Introduction to digital image processing: light, cameras and the human visual system; digital systems for image capture and processing.
• Colour representation and encoding: RGB; YUV; HSV.
• The 2D Discrete Fourier Transform and Discrete Cosine Transform.
• Image encoding:  quantization and image compression; relevant standards, e.g. JPEG; H264 and HDTV.
• Basic filtering operations: image smoothing; noise reduction and sharpening.
• Image enhancement: histogram-based equalisation; noise smoothing; edge detection; Hough Transform; morphological  operators (erosion and dilation).
• Applications: Object detection, recognition and tracking; motion estimation and 3-D reconstruction.
• Real-time Implementation: Hardware and software platforms.

The course unit unit aims to:

• Provide a thorough and complete introduction to the subject of modern digital image processing.
• Emphasise the links between the theoretical foundations of the subject and the essentially practical nature of its realisation.
• Encourage and understanding through the use of algorithms and real world examples,
• Provide useful skills through detailed practical laboratories, which explore digital image processing software and hardware.

On successful completion of the course, a student will be able to:

ILO 1: Demonstrate a clear and detailed knowledge of the founding principles of digital image processing, and understand how the various fundamental equations both operate and are constructed.

ILO 2: Program and debug existing image processing hardware platforms, and devise, code and test off-line and real-time image processing algorithms, both using PCs and dedicated image processing hardware.

ILO 3: To recognise the different classes of problem in digital image processing, and to decide upon appropriate methodologies in their solution.

ILO 4: Perform literature searching; scientific report writing; use of graphing and presentation packages; project design; team work; use of the Blackboard system discussion forum.

Unseen Written Examination

The form of the examination: 4 questions, answer all questions

Length of examination: 3 hours

Calculators are permitted

The unseen written examination forms 70% of the total unit assessment

Course Work- Laboratories

The number of laboratories: 3

Length of each laboratory: 6 hours

Two of the laboratories are assessed by a lab report

The laboratories form 30% of the total unit mark.

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• Digital image processing by Gonzalez, Rafael C. Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008.
• Fundamentals of digital image processing: a practical approach with examples in MATLAB by Solomon, Chris. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
• Fundamentals of digital image processing by Jain, Anil K. Prentice-Hall International, 1989.